Weightlifting Meet Tactics E-Book

Your athlete's training is finished by the time you walk into the venue. The strength is built, the technique is grooved, and nothing you do at the marshal's table will add a kilo to what they can lift that day.

What you can change is how much of it ends up on the scoreboard.

Two lifters with identical numbers walk into the same session. One leaves with a medal and a qualifying total. The other leaves with three misses and a story about how close it was. The difference is rarely strength. It is almost always tactics: which attempts they took, when they took them, how they read the field, and whether their coach knew the rules well enough to use them.

This book is about closing that gap.

WHAT IT COVERS

Thirteen chapters, in the order a meet actually happens.

Entry totals and which session your athlete should really be in. Opposition research, and how to turn it into a projection of every attempt in the session. Choosing openers you will actually make. The weigh-in, including the singlet rule most coaches have never checked. Counting attempts, and why six attempts on a weight is really eight. Timing a warm-up to the count instead of the clock. Running the card so you keep your changes. The clock: calling order, burning a clock, and the thirty-second trap the best coaches run when a meet is on the line. Choosing second and third attempts from what you just saw rather than from a plan. The endgame, where you decide whether to take the last lift or force a rival onto a number they do not have. And what to do when a call goes against you, including the one recourse you actually have.

Every rule is quoted from the IWF Technical and Competition Rules & Regulations with its section number, so you can check it yourself.

WHO IT IS FOR

Coaches, and lifters who handle their own card. It will keep you from beating yourself at a local meet, and it matters most at the national and international level, where the field is tight and medals are decided by one kilo and one good decision.

Every chapter ends with a section for athletes competing without a coach.

WHAT IS INSIDE

143 pages
13 chapters
6 appendices, including an opposition research worksheet, a session projection sheet, a warm-up card, and a rules quick reference
A one-page meet-day checklist you can print and keep in your bag
Real sessions, including a Pan American Games gold won on the last lift, and the meets I lost by getting this wrong

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wil Fleming is a USA Weightlifting Senior International Coach and was an assistant coach for the United States Olympic weightlifting team at the 2024 Games in Paris. He has coached athletes to national titles and international medals at the Pan American Games, Pan American Championships, and World Championships. He coaches the 1Kilo team in Bloomington, Indiana, and is the author of Strong Mind and Velocity-Based Training for Weightlifting.

DELIVERY

Instant PDF download. Read it on any device, or print it.